Motionless In White: Reincarnate

Chris Motionless marks his dance cards

Motionless In White have never been
a band to shy away from wearing their numerous, goth and industrial-tinged influences on their sleeves, but the tellingly titled Reincarnate takes the Name That Rip game to
a whole new level.

Not that there’s anything wrong with paying tribute to your heroes, of course, but truth be told, the reference points on display here are endless: Death March is practically dripping with Manson’s attitude, the title track’s chorus sounds like AFI at their anthemic finest, Final Dicvtm shamelessly channels Combichrist, Dead As Fuck gloriously apes Rob Zombie’s shlock-horror-isms, Puppets 3 even boasts a Dani Filth cameo for its Cradle-inspired black metal romp and, most bizarrely, Unstoppable seems to be a song that Five Finger Death Punch left down the back of the sofa. It all makes for a rather confusing but, more pressingly, hugely enjoyable listen, and while the result is a loss of some of the identity that Infamous and its predecessor had gone some distance to establish, it’s still a rollicking tunefest in its own right. Motionless could undoubtedly still do with reining themselves in if they are to fully engrave themselves as a band all of their own making, but as it stands, they more than know how to work their inspirations to great effect, and Reincarnate is as fun a metal album as you’re likely to hear this year.